


Little Ghosts

by telm_393



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Kid Fic, Kid Hermann, Kid Newt, M/M, Neurodiversity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-07
Updated: 2013-12-21
Packaged: 2017-12-31 18:04:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1034744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/telm_393/pseuds/telm_393
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A lab accident has some unexpected results, as in it turns Newt into an eight year old and Hermann into a nine year old, physically and mentally. In response, the occupants of the Hong Kong Shatterdome do their best to not screw up the second childhood of two of their best and brightest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Fountain of Youth

**Author's Note:**

> SO HERE I AM WITH A DE-AGING FIC, WONDERING WHAT I'M DOING WITH MY LIFE. Okay, this is the first WIP I've written in ages, but I'm really quite excited about it.
> 
> I'm writing it for this prompt on the kink meme: http://pacificrimkink.livejournal.com/2747.html?thread=4434107#t4434107

The war’s over, and Raleigh spends a lot of his free time in the K-Science lab with Mako and, obviously, Newt and Hermann, who don’t generally _leave_ the lab.

(“Hermann thinks he’s a subterranean creature that doesn’t need any sunlight,” Newt once confided to Raleigh in an obnoxiously loud whisper.

“The hypocrisy inherent in that statement is astonishing, _Dr. Geiszler,_ ” Hermann had snapped.

“Oh, don’t you Dr. Geiszler me—”

“Well, then don’t talk about me like I am not right here—”

“Uh, I’m sorry, were you talking about hypocrisy? Because you do that _all the fucking—”_

“ _Language,_ Dr.—”

“Oh my god, Hermann, we’re grown-ups, grown-ups _swear_ , gasp, shock, I know—”

“Oh, do not act like you are somehow more mature than I am just because you have no vocabulary—”

It went on like that for a while.)

The thing is, there’s a lot of free time, now, and Raleigh hasn’t had much free time for a while, so mostly he’s just following Mako around, and Mako adores Newt and Hermann for reasons that are…actually completely understandable once Raleigh gets to know them.

“You have to forgive Newt his occasional inappropriate comments,” Mako had told him when he’d been reluctant to go down to see the scientists the first time, still kind of thrown off by Newt’s first impression. “He has trouble containing his excitement, sometimes, and he simply does not have the same…filters that other people do. But he is not one to hurt people on purpose.”

Raleigh had been kind of wary at first, but, yeah, Mako was completely right. Raleigh’s learned to just kind of…go wherever Newt’s ridiculously big brain takes them, over the past couple of weeks.

Today, Mako and Raleigh are walking down to the lab after eating lunch when they hear Newt and Hermann, panicked, yelling over each other, and then something like a scream, cut off.

And then silence.

They sprint the rest of the way to the lab, and when they enter, they find—

Well, Raleigh has no idea what the fuck those two were doing, and now he has no idea where the fuck they are, because there is _no fucking way_ that…

“Oh my _God,_ ” he breathes.

Mako has her hand over her mouth, but she quickly gets her bearings and uses her walkie talkie to request assistance in the K-Science lab.

Raleigh rushes over to the children lying prone on the floor.

Their clothes are way too big for them, now, they’re swimming in them, and this is so weird, so completely…impossible.

But Raleigh lives in a world in which the apocalypse was only just barely canceled, so kind of anything’s possible.

+

Now, Raleigh’s standing around, quietly freaking out and watching everybody else quietly freak out.

“What the fuck are we going to do?”

Okay, Chuck’s not as quiet about it, Raleigh admits to himself as Chuck voices exactly what everybody else has probably been thinking since the lab accident a few hours ago.

Herc opens his mouth, probably to reassure his son, before realizing that there’s no way to make this reassuring and snapping his mouth shut, opting to shake his head wearily instead.

Even Pentecost is pacing around looking far more ruffled than usual.

They’re standing outside one of the rooms in medbay that a couple of disturbingly young scientists are occupying, since apparently lab accidents can age people down now, which is information Raleigh could have gone his whole life not knowing, if his life had ever made any sense.

Tendo is in there right now along with a couple of nurses that are keeping a close eye on Hermann and Newt’s vitals; just in case the aging down was just physical, to explain things and be a familiar face.

If the aging down wasn’t just physical, nobody’s got a clue what they’re going to do, but Raleigh's hoping somebody's cooking something up.

The door opens. “Get Alison,” Tendo says. “I think Newt’s waking up.”

Mako nods gravely and heads off quicker than she would if she were really as serene as she wanted to come off as in search of Dr. Choi.

Steeling himself, Raleigh follows Herc and Pentecost into the room. He keeps the door open for a second, but Chuck shakes his head no to entering.

Raleigh’s stomach twists when he sees Newt and Hermann, looking tiny and vulnerable in their child forms. Before, he’d just gotten a glimpse and pushed the panic button, but now he sees them clearly.

Newt’s tossing and turning, and it looks like he’s having a bad dream. Usually, Raleigh would wake somebody having a nightmare up, but this situation’s so new for him he decides to stay on the safe side and not move.

And then Newt wakes up, big green eyes snapping open and scanning everything in the room, and everybody. He’s so _small_ it strikes Raleigh. It’s easy to see when he clambers upright to kneel on the bed. He looks around again, looking more panicky than he did before, and suddenly there’s a look of devastation on his face that’s heartbreaking.

“Vati?” he calls out. “Gunter? Warum bin ich in der Krankenhaus? Vati? Vati! Ich tut mir leid!”

“Newt,” Raleigh cuts in before the kid gets even more upset. “Kannst du Englisch sprechen?”

Newt looks surprised but then nods very quickly. “Ja,” he says, and then, “Yes, perfectly.” He still looks upset, and Raleigh sees with some panic that there are tears pooling in his eyes. “My dad, where’s my dad? Where’s my uncle? What happened? I don’t usually forget things.”

Before Raleigh can say anything, Alison, Tendo, and Mako enter the room.

“Hey,” Alison says, smiling gently. “Good to see you’re awake.”

Newt glances at her white coat and the badge on her pocket that reads _Dr. Alison Choi_ and asks, “Why am I in the hospital? Where’s my father?” Before anybody can answer, he asks, anxiously, voice quivering halfway through the question, “Did they send me away?”

Raleigh feels like he’s been kicked in the gut. He looks around quickly and feels at least a little better to see he's not the only one. Mako's posture is so rigid that it looks painful, her lips pressed tightly together. Pentecost sighs heavily, looking slightly pained, and Herc clenches his jaw.

Tendo manages an uncomfortable smile, and Alison says, “We’re going to be taking care of you for a while. You had an accident, and now there’s a situation that you’re going to find very hard to understand.”

“Accident? What kind of accident? What are you talking about? Where _am_ I anyway, this is a weird hospital, why are you the only doctor? This isn’t my hospital.” Newt bounces off of the bed at this point, slightly too-large pajamas covering his feet and almost making him trip, but Raleigh steadies him.

Newt flinches and twists away from his grip and heads over to the door.

“Hold on, there,” Pentecost says gently. “We’re going to explain everything to you in a few moments. You’re here for a reason.”

Newt stops suddenly and turns around, giving everyone a searching look. “Are you guys aliens?” He brightens a bit at the thought. “Did I get abducted by aliens?”

“No,” Tendo says flatly, and Newt’s face falls so far that Raleigh kind of wishes he’d just said yes.

Newt looks about ready to throw a tantrum, but instead he just goes back to the bed and throws himself down onto the mattress, covering himself with the blanket from head to toe.

“Newt?” Alison asks, slightly concerned.

“I don’t want to talk to you, you vampire! I don’t want to talk to any of you! Call me when you have actual important interesting things to tell me. And don’t say I won’t understand things, I’m a _genius._ ”

Nobody’s really sure what to do after Newt falls silent. Alison mouths, _Let him rest,_ and she’s the doctor, so that’s what they do.

Raleigh thinks the poor kid’s definitely got a right to be upset. Newt’s words keep ringing in his ears: _did they send me away?_

He doesn’t know how they’re going to explain this one.

Newt’s still burrowed under the blankets, breathing breaths that definitely aren’t those of a sleeping person, when Hermann wakes up.

Alison’s the first to notice. “Hey,” she says kindly. “How are you feeling?”

Hermann, a slight, skinny little boy with a lopsided haircut, sits up slowly, and then moves so that he’s sitting cross-legged, tapping a rhythm with his fingers out onto his left knee. He looks so much smaller than the bed, even though the hospital beds in the Shatterdomes have always seemed basically microscopic to Raleigh. He looks at everybody carefully, and then at Alison, taking in her white coat and her name tag.

“I’m Dr. Choi,” she says kindly. “I’m here to take care of you.”

“I don’t want you here, leave me alone,” Hermann says in one of the coldest tones of voice Raleigh’s ever heard from a child. His accent is British, crisp and about as flawless as Newt’s American accent.

Raleigh exchanges an alarmed look with Tendo, while Alison looks, for just a moment, quietly miserable before steeling herself and saying, “There are a few things we need to talk about.”

“I don’t want to talk about anything with you,” Hermann snaps, looking down at his hands as he twists his fingers together. “My parents said I didn’t have to talk to any more doctors.”

Tendo nods at Alison and mouths, _I’ve got this,_ and carefully makes his way to Hermann’s bed. “Okay, sure. I’m Tendo. I work here. There’s been an accident, and there are things we need to explain to you now that aren’t going to make much sense.”

Hermann makes a little _hmph_ sound and keeps rubbing his hand against his head absent-mindedly, staring down at his knees with laser-like focus. “Are you going to explain them anyway? Because that’s probably in your best interest.”

“You’re right. We are.”

“Finally!” Newt yells from his bed, emerging from his blanket cocoon.

Hermann starts violently. “Who are _you_?” he asks.

“I’m Newt. Since you’re also here then you were probably in the accident with me, right?”

“Right, but what was the accident?”

They turn to the adults clustered around their beds, which means they turn to a bunch of clueless adults making helpless expressions at each other.

Pentecost is the first to speak. “What year is it?”

Newt rolls his eyes dramatically. “It’s ’98.”

Hermann nods his agreement.

“I hate to be the one to say this to you two, but it’s not 1998 anymore. It’s 2025.”

Hermann looks distinctly unimpressed. “Impossible. I’d be thirty-seven.”

“You were, and Newt here was thirty-six. But you _did_ have an accident, and it seems to have aged you down, physically and mentally.”

“Wow,” Newt says, looking awestruck. “That…that’s not _true,_ though, right?” He pauses critically. "This is a really weird joke.”

“I agree,” Hermann mutters, twisting his fingers together again.

Both of them look horribly lost, probably because they are, and Raleigh feels his stomach twist horribly at the sight of them. He’s always been a sucker for kids, and he’s always hated to see them in pain, and he has no idea how to feel about this except entirely too fucking confused to be even slightly helpful right now.

Pentecost is still the only one who can seem to find any words. “I’m sorry, you two, but this is very real. I have evidence, if you want to see.”

Newt nods eagerly, and Hermann does absolutely nothing, sitting statue still.

“Maybe it would be better if there weren’t so many people in the room while this went on, we don’t want anyone getting over-excited,” Alison points out, herding everybody but Stacker and Mako, whose laptop case is starting to make sense to Raleigh, away.

Raleigh spends the rest of the night worrying about what’s going on, and when Chuck asks him how things went when he goes to the mess hall way too early in the morning, he can only shrug helplessly and say he doesn’t know.

After a while of sitting awkwardly with Chuck, who he still doesn't know very well though he's not nearly as unfriendly to Raleigh as he was, Raleigh heads to his and Mako's room.

The room is dark and Mako is lying on his bed—he doesn’t see her at first, but he kind of feels her presence in his gut—in all of her clothes except her heavy boots, which are on the floor, looking exhausted.

“Status report?” Raleigh whispers.

“They are…very interesting children. They took a lot of convincing, and Hermann was very agitated, but they took the news surprisingly well.”

“Kids are adaptable,” Raleigh offers.

“I know,” Mako agrees, and Raleigh tries not to cringe when he remembers what Mako had to adapt to in her childhood. “But even Hermann…even as an adult, he doesn’t like change. I’m afraid he’s simply in emotional shock.”

Raleigh sighs heavily, going to sit on the bed, picking Mako’s legs up so that he can place them over his lap. “What about Newt?”

“I’m worried about both of them,” Mako admits. “He seemed rather excited, but I don’t know how he’s going to react when it really starts to sink in that this isn’t a science fiction story.”

“It could be,” Raleigh grumbles.

Mako sighs a bit in a way that’s eerily reminiscent of Stacker Pentecost’s weary sighs. “It was difficult to explain to them what had gone on while they were growing up, how things had changed.”

“Oh, God, I didn’t think about that. What did you tell them about all this?”

“We said as little as we could. We said that this is a military base that is now working on reconstruction after a long war that’s over now.”

“What about the Kaiju?”

“We said that they were from a very distant land. That they had weapons we hadn’t seen before. That they wanted to take over the world. They’ve watched cartoons, so they found it…plausible. But we made it very clear that we won and that the Kaiju aren’t going to bother us anymore.”

“That…works, I guess.”

“We didn’t want to over-excite them with talk of beings from other dimensions. And we didn’t tell them anything about themselves. They want to know, but they aren’t pressing. I think it’s simply because they can’t conceive of themselves as people who have already lived so much more than them.”

“I wouldn’t be able to do that either,” Raleigh says. “Who’s going to take care of them?” he finally asks.

“Their parents are out of the question. Newt's father and uncle are dead, and his mother was never his primary caregiver, it would be unfair to expect that of her now. Hermann's mother is dead, he would never forgive me if I passed this information on to his father, and his siblings have children of their own. In any case, the Marshal isn't sure what the experiment was, if it was classified, or if they will re-age easily. So we will do it,” Mako says firmly. “All of us in the Shatterdome, until it is no longer necessary. There aren’t any others who will do it as well.”

Raleigh nods. “Good.” He leans back against the wall and then manages to manipulate himself into a position where he’s lying down. Mako shifts so that she’s half on top of him, head on his stomach.

They don’t sleep much that night.

Mostly, they just listen to each other breathe.


	2. Awake

Raleigh wakes up with Mako’s hair in his mouth.

He feels almost unbearably warm, and it’s probably the extra body heat from Mako curled up against him, but it’s not like he’s going to push her away.

It’s probably way later than he usually wakes up by now, since Raleigh doesn’t figure that he and Mako fell asleep any time before four in the morning. Raleigh doesn’t usually sleep in, even now that he can if he wants to.

Raleigh manfully keeps himself from groaning as he remembers yesterday, quietly hoping that Hermann and Newt re-aged during the night. Somehow, though, he doubts it.

At least he likes kids. That can be a comfort.

He feels kind of guilty, after a little while of overheating in bed, for sleeping in and not going to medical, and he apologetically shakes Mako awake.

She wakes up with a grumble and looks at him blearily for one second before her eyes clear up and she’s sitting next to him.

“Morning,” Raleigh says cheerfully. “Ready to face the day?”

Mako flashes him a genuine smile and replies, “Are you?”

“Of course,” Raleigh replies, stumbling out of bed and stretching, checking the clock and wincing. Nearly noon. “Want to go see…?” he trails off, knowing Mako’s perfectly aware of what he’s talking about.

Mako nods, following him out of bed and changing into clothes she must have brought in from her quarters yesterday, while Raleigh pulls on a t-shirt and pants beside her.

“We’re going to have to go shopping,” Mako muses. “They don’t have any clothing or toys.”

For some reason, Raleigh hadn’t really considered toys, but now he kicks himself for not thinking of it. There aren’t many toys in the Shatterdome, not since most of the families with kids left when they started shutting things down, and Newt and Hermann deserve some entertainment.

“We’ll deal with that soon,” Raleigh promises, already thinking about taking a Shatterdome car and heading out into the city for a shopping spree.

Mako smiles at him a bit absentmindedly, shrugging on a dark blue cardigan and heading to the door, stepping out into the less-bustling-than-Raleigh-remembers hallway of the Shatterdome.

When they get to medical, Hermann and Newt are still sleeping—Herc, who is quietly working on a Sudoku puzzle in the waiting room, tells them that Alison says that they’d spent most of the night scribbling on paper that Tendo had given them, though they hadn’t said two words to each other—and Raleigh can see papers peeking out from under Newt’s pillow and stacked neatly next to Hermann’s bed.

Raleigh and Mako sit down on the floor across from Herc and Pentecost, who is reading a book, and try their best to share a book Mako had the presence of mind to bring along. They manage to get past a couple of pages when Chuck cruises in, in his automatic wheelchair with Max on his lap, the dog looking pleased as punch at the ride as usual.

“You’re gonna get him fat if you keep letting him hitch a ride on your lap like that,” Herc grumbles good-naturedly.

Chuck snorts and rolls his eyes, not looking at all impressed at the warning. “You know they’re waking up, right?” he points out, looking over through the window into Newt and Hermann’s little room.

“Do you think we should call Alison?” he asks Mako, who shrugs.

“It can’t hurt,” she says as she presses the slightly friendlier version of a panic button that’s set up next to the door.

Raleigh watches the scientists (he’s always thought of them that way, but they aren’t really scientists yet, are they?) through the window. Newt’s vibrating with energy in the same kind of way he used to as an adult, and he keeps sneaking curious looks at Hermann. Raleigh hopes their version of getting along as children is less explosive than their version of getting along as adults.

Hermann grabs his notes from the floor and frowns at them thoughtfully, and that’s when Alison arrives. “Tendo’s with the baby,” she explains as she pushes open the door and Raleigh, Pentecost, Herc, and Mako follow her inside.

Newt looks up at them with wide eyes while Hermann looks at them with suspicion when he isn’t pointedly _not_ looking at him.

“Hi,” Newt says almost cheerily but mostly tentatively.

“Hi,” Alison says back gently. “Are you feeling okay?”

“How long do I have to be here?” Newt asks anxiously, ignoring the question. “Hospitals _suck._ ”

“Not much longer. You’ll be out of here once we have rooms ready.”

“You can use the ones next to our room, right Mako?” Raleigh asks, doing his best to sound off-hand, getting a few surprised looks.

Mako nods seriously. “Of course.”

He’d decided halfway through the night to make that suggestion because he likes the idea of Newt and Hermann having rooms near responsible adults—and Raleigh’s pretty sure he and Mako count, no matter how weird it is to think of himself as a responsible adult—that they kind of know and that are in a hallway that's relatively uninhabited like the one Mako and Raleigh’s rooms are in.

He hadn’t really considered Mako not agreeing, clearly for good reason.

Hermann gives him a brief, wary look before looking away again, and Newt nods at him cheerfully, starting to bounce on the bed. “I’m bored,” he says bluntly. “Is it always this boring in the future?”

Raleigh chuckles. “Definitely not.”

“What’s your name?”

“Raleigh.”

“Like the place?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay. Can I leave today, though? Even if I don’t have a room, can I leave here? I’m really really _really_ bored.”

“I’m afraid it’ll be kind of hard if you don’t have proper clothes,” Pentecost cuts in.

“Yes,” Hermann finally pipes up. “Speaking of that, when can we get proper clothes? I don’t like these, they scratch.”

“Soon,” Alison promises. “Really soon. Tendo’s already dug some up that must be about your size.”

“And we’re going to get you your own clothes, don’t worry,” Mako reassures.

“Figured we’d take you into town, get you some essentials,” Raleigh chimes in.

“Cool,” Newt says. “I’ve always wanted to see Hong Kong.” He pauses. “Well, I’ve always wanted to see everywhere. When’s he bringing the clothes? I want to explore.”

Newt seems so excited at the idea that Raleigh smiles.

Alison chuckles. “I don’t know yet, he’s busy.”

“Ugh,” Newt says, flopping onto the bed dramatically and starting to toss and turn as if he’s gravely uncomfortable, which he probably is.

Hermann looks at him critically before turning his attention back to his papers. After a couple of long awkward minutes during which Newt periodically lies stock still and then flops around some more and then is still again, Hermann speaks up to say, “Will we get books?”

“What?” Raleigh asks.

“When we go out to get essentials,” Hermann says tentatively. “We _will_ be able to get books, right?”

“Well, _duh,_ ” Newt cuts in. “He said essentials, books are essential.”

“Yes,” Hermann agrees. “But sometimes people don’t seem to believe that.”

“Well, we do,” Raleigh says. “Don’t worry, we’ll get you some fun stuff too, so you’ll have something to do around here all day.”

Hermann and Newt go very quiet at that. Finally, Newt says, “Do you think you’ll be able to...fix this?”

Raleigh doesn’t say anything because he’s got nothing to say to that except that he’s starting to doubt it more and more, in his gut.

“We honestly don’t know,” Pentecost says. “But so far we are treating this as reversible unless it is proven irreversible. However, it is best if you get used to this, just in case. We will do our best to make this as comfortable for you as possible no matter what.”

Newt nods, looking a little scared. Hermann is rubbing a hand through his hair.

“Okay,” Newt mutters. “It’s an adventure. That’s what my dad says.”

“An adventure,” Hermann repeats, sounding a bit like he’s turning the idea over in his head. “All right.”

The silence descends heavily on the room after that, and Raleigh just barely keeps himself from breathing a sigh of relief when Tendo walks in with some clothes. “Here you go,” he says cheerfully, tossing clothes onto Hermann and Newt’s beds. “We’ve got this for now.”

“Good,” Hermann says firmly, jumping off of the bed and immediately going to the bathroom and locking himself in, leaving Newt to wait.

Newt doesn’t seem to mind. He hops off of the bed—and Raleigh’s honestly pretty damn impressed that he’s managed to keep himself from doing that for all this time—and starts wandering around the room. Pentecost discretely goes to cover the door so that Newt won’t get out on his own and end up getting lost, because it’s way too easy to get lost in a Shatterdome and it would be a really bad idea to let a little kid go exploring alone.

“These are called Shatterdomes, right?” Newt asks, and then he keeps talking before anybody can answer the question. “That’s a really cool name. Shatterdome. The rest of it isn’t as bad as the hospital part, right?”

“I should hope not,” Pentecost answers just as Hermann steps out of the bathroom, dressed in a sweater that’s a bit too big for him and jeans that are a bit too long, but he’s rolled up the cuffs and it’s workable.

Newt flees into the bathroom, accidentally knocking against Hermann, who looks mortally offended at the unexpected contact.

He then takes a page from Newt’s book, wandering around the room, choosing a wall to pace next to, running his fingers over it.

After a little while, Newt steps out of the bathroom, wearing clothes that fit him fairly well. Raleigh wonders how the hell Tendo dug them up, and the question must show on his face, because Tendo looks at him, winks, and mouths, _The Russians._

That makes sense. If the Russians could get the nuke for Operation Payload, then they could get some children’s clothes.

Newt runs over to Pentecost, looking up at him imploringly. “Can we go now? I want to leave this room and not come back ever.”

“I can’t promise it, but I’ll do my best. Just don’t run in front of us, all right? Are you hungry?”

“No!”

“We’re going to get something to eat. Come on.”

Newt practically squeals with excitement and immediately rushes forward, yanking open the door and, once he’s in the waiting room, almost immediately tripping over Max and landing sprawling on the floor.

“ _Ugh_ ,” Newt says at the floor like it personally decided to conspire against him and make him fall.

That’s when he sees Chuck, looking up at him wide-eyed while Chuck looks down at him like he has absolutely no idea what to do, which he clearly doesn’t.

“Woah,” Newt says, and Raleigh immediately winces, considering Newt’s lack of tact in adulthood and expecting questions like _why are you in a wheelchair_ or _what happened to your face_ , but instead Newt just asks, “Did you fight in the war?”

Raleigh looks back at Hermann, who is also looking at Chuck, though with guarded interest rather than plain fascination like Newt.

Chuck blinks and lets out a little sigh and says, “Yeah, I did.”

“What’s your name?”

“I’m Chuck Hansen.”

Newt giggles. “You have a weird accent.”

Raleigh coughs to cover up his laughter while Chuck looks a bit indignant. “It’s Australian.”

Newt nods seriously at that. “Okay,” he says, before giggling a little again. “Is this your dog?”

“Yeah, his name’s Max.”

“He’s cool,” Newt informs Chuck, who really doesn’t have to be informed of it since nobody thinks Max is cooler than Chuck does, crawling towards Max and petting him. Max pants and wiggles happily, getting half on Newt’s lap.

He looks delighted.

Hermann, who is halfway hidden behind Mako, looks wary. “Didn’t you want to _go_?” he asks Newt testily.

“Oh, yeah,” Newt says absentmindedly, picking himself up and heading to the second door that leads out of the waiting room and out of medical. Raleigh briefly remembers his time in private medical in the Shatterdome, and shudders. He thinks he’s almost as glad as Newt to be out of here.

Newt starts running forward again, but Stacker says, “Remember what I said about slowing down.”

Newt scoffs. “I never slow down.”

Raleigh chuckles and says, “It’s easier to explore if you’re not going too fast to actually look at things,” he points out, and Newt seems to concede to his point. Raleigh almost misses the soft smile Mako sends his way, but he does manage to catch it, and sends one back.

The news of the lab accident must have spread around, because Raleigh notices a lot of people nudging each other and staring as discretely as they can (which isn’t that discrete) when they spot their little group, led by Herc and Chuck, making their way to the mess hall. Raleigh really isn’t surprised; he remembers how fast gossip got around in Shatterdomes.

He remembers pretty gleefully listening to a lot of that gossip and passing plenty of it on in the good old days. The Shatterdome grapevine was always pretty busy, and this must have made it explode, and Raleigh’s pretty sure he’s mixing metaphors.

It’s early to be having dinner, so the mess hall isn’t full at all, and they have no problem herding the kids to an isolated table and finding some food for them.

Mako’s able to get food for them off of their eating habits as adults—Newt’s not particular about what he eats, though he could have been as a child, they’ll figure it out if this doesn’t work, but Hermann is, and she gets him plain milk, blue jello, and bland chicken—and it actually does work for them.

Hermann nods approvingly at his food and, grabbing the fork and knife in an awkward grip, starts to painstakingly cut the chicken as Newt digs in to his own food, pulling apart his chicken and continuously miscalculating exactly how much he can actually chew while Chuck tosses pieces of food over his shoulder for Max to catch them in his mouth, which makes Newt giggle and Chuck smirk, pleased with himself for making Newt laugh.

 A little while into their meal, where there isn’t much talking past some soft words exchanged between Herc and Pentecost, Raleigh feels his bench bend slightly and Hermann stop in his cutting to stare, looking suddenly very on edge, at whoever’s sat next to Raleigh.

“Hello,” Sasha Kaidanovsky says to Hermann, who hums awkwardly, going back to cutting his food, as Aleksis smiles kindly at Newt, who suddenly looks starry-eyed.

“How _tall_ are you?” Newt asks, and then barrels on. “ _Wow._ ”

Aleksis chuckles, not seeming at all put off. “Two meters.”

Newt makes a little squeaking sound. “No way! That’s so awesome. What do you do? Did you fight in the war too?”

“Yes, we did.”

“You and her?” Newt asks, pointing at Sasha.

“Don’t point, it’s rude,” Chuck mumbles absentmindedly, and Newt lowers his arm while Herc briefly looks at Chuck, who is looking down at Max and doesn’t notice, surprised.

“Yes,” he says. “I am Aleksis.”

“I am Sasha,” she chimes in, directing it half at Hermann, who doesn’t look up at her or Aleksis, aggressively intent on cutting his chicken, which is…coming along, and occasionally eating a piece or two, ignoring the outside world.

A look flickers over Sasha’s face that Raleigh barely places as hurt, just because he never really expected to see that look on her, but then he remembers Mako told him that adult Hermann and the Kaidanovsky’s were close friends.

“Did you guys fight as a team or something?” Newt asks, and then Sasha turns her attention towards him.

“Yes, we did. So did Mako and Raleigh, and Herc and Chuck. This war involved much battle in pairs.”

“Wow. That would be…” Newt goes a bit quiet, shoving a last piece of chicken into his mouth and chewing thoughtfully and, after swallowing, continuing to say, “…pretty rad. I mean, knowing someone enough to fight as one team. I don’t think I could ever do that.”

Sasha smiles, one side of her mouth twisting upwards and her steel eyes glinting gently. “Do not be so sure.”

Newt smiles widely at her and very quickly polishes off his blue jello just as Hermann finishes eating his chicken and starts on his own jello while Sasha chats with Mako about hair-dye (“I’m thinking,” Mako says, twisting a blue strand of hair around her finger, “of a change.”) and Aleksis answers questions about the war and the Shatterdome to the best of his ability.

Raleigh’s not sure how, but Aleksis seems to know the story they’ve told the kids and is tactfully not mentioning the Kaiju as the alien monsters that they were but as the secret enemy they’re pretending they are for Newt and Hermann’s benefit.

Once the conversation starts winding down, Raleigh decides to ask a question that might actually get something out of Hermann. “So what are you guys interested in?”

Newt, unsurprisingly, is the first to answer, and, also unsurprisingly, practically squeals, “Biology! It’s the best ever!”

“I like mathematics better,” Hermann says quietly.

Newt gasps. “No _way_. But…you can’t dissect math! I mean, it’s _okay,_ but it’s not the same, it’s not as hands on.”

“Dissections are messy,” Hermann points out.

“Yeah, that’s why they’re _great_.”

“Math is clean, and it’s intrinsically connected to the entire world. Nobody appreciates it enough.”

“Yeah, dude, ‘cause it’s not as fun as biology.”

Hermann wrinkles his nose. “Fun isn’t important,” he says solemnly.

Raleigh sees Herc and Pentecost exchange a vaguely discomfited look.

Newt just laughs. “That’s silly. If you like math so much, don’t you think doing, I dunno, equations or something is fun?”

Hermann looks down at his jello and jabs his spoon into it slowly over and over again. “I derive _enjoyment_ from it.”

 “That’s just a longer word for fun,” Newt says smugly.

“I suppose so,” Hermann mutters.

“Biology’s still better, it’s totally cool, I mean, just looking at the way bodies, all kinds of bodies, work is _mind-blowing_.”

Hermann just looks confused at that, humming a little, and then indignant. “ _Nothing_ compares to the elegance of mathematics. Galileo said that it wrote the book of nature, so the biology you find so fun simply wouldn’t be without mathematics.”

Newt starts to scoff, and Raleigh decides to interrupt before what’s a wonderfully civilized argument, especially considering it’s between two geniuses under ten who fight like an old married couple as grown-ups, degenerates into a shouting match. “What else are you interested in?”

“I like monsters and aliens and stuff,” Newt says happily. “I’ve seen _Godzilla_ over a hundred times. The idea of whole entire new creatures that are from space or other dimensions or just really big and scary is so awesome.”

Mako smiles a bit. “I see. What about you, Hermann? Are you interested in anything besides math?”

“Everything is math,” Hermann says pompously. “But I like planes. And robots.”

Newt nods approvingly. “I like robots too.”

“Planes?” Pentecost asks with interest.

Hermann nods, brightening. “I love the way they’re built, they’re elegant and the aerodynamics are fascinating, and…” he pauses for a second like he’s embarrassed, and seems to make a conscious effort to not say much more, but he does end with feeling, saying, “It’s so wonderful that humans can _fly_.” The words are accompanied by a brief, dazzling smile that he sends Pentecost’s way before he gets serious again and focuses on his last few bites of his jello.

Pentecost looks at him with a soft, warm smile for a few moments before saying, softly, “I agree with you completely.”

“You all done with your food?” Herc asks Newt and Hermann gruffly.

Newt nods, and Hermann doesn’t respond, so Herc asks him again, and that’s when he nods slowly.

“Can we go explore now?” Newt asks.

Aleksis chuckles. “You wish to explore?” he asks.

“Yeah! You guys live in a _Shatterdome_.”

“I will show you around…” Stacker checks his phone and shakes his head at Aleksis. “…soon, but it seems that the Marshal has something to tell you.”

“Your rooms are ready.”

 _When did that happen?_ Raleigh wants to ask, but doesn’t, figuring that Pentecost and Herc worked on that while he was busy trying to entertain the kids.

“We can explore the way to your rooms,” Raleigh says. “Best not to do all your adventuring at once.”

Newt pouts a bit but says, “Fine.”

It’s already four by the time they’re out of the mess hall, and by the time Newt explores every nook and cranny—which mostly look the same, Raleigh honestly can’t see what’s so interesting—and waves cheerfully at anybody he sees looking at him on the way to his room, it’s eight, especially considering that Hermann also seems perfectly happy to spend a lot of time walking along the halls running his fingers over the walls, exploring the textures, Raleigh figures.

Their rooms are plain but Raleigh promises himself that after going out—tomorrow, they’ll do it tomorrow—they’ll start looking at least a little more comfortable.

Like a place that could, at some point, be home.


	3. In Retrospect

The night goes by quickly after extorting promises from Newt and Hermann that they’ll stay in their rooms _please_.

Raleigh’s pretty worried that Newt especially won’t listen, since he’s the one who seemed pretty big on exploring and adventuring and so on (and Raleigh remembers being like that when he was little; Yancy had loved superhero games but Raleigh had liked playing at exploring new worlds, he guesses that’s why he’d liked _Star Trek_ so much), so he keeps his ear to wall to make sure that there aren’t doors opening that shouldn’t be opening, but Newt actually seems to fall asleep really early.

Raleigh figures it’s not exactly going to be a regular occurrence, Newt and Hermann both clocking out so early, so he decides to savor it while he can and crashes before he usually does. This time, he’s in Mako’s room—he likes it better, it’s more comfortable to him since it’s more lived in—and it’s easier to fall asleep there.

She curls up against him again, and they press their foreheads together and fall asleep like that. It feels right, being with her.

Raleigh hasn’t felt another person make him _complete_ in ages.

He wakes up to a dull thumping sound coming from Newt’s room. Mako seems to have noticed it too, since she’s frowning.

At first, Raleigh assumes the worst.

He’s not sure what the worst would be; just…something bad, but then he thinks that there’s probably a perfectly good explanation for the thumping that doesn’t involve any bodily harm to anyone. “’M gonna go check on him,” he mumbles to Mako, who seems to have been awake for longer, but not by much, climbing over her to stand up and change into street clothes, patting her shoulder cheerfully as he heads out into the hallway.

The thumping stops for a second before, unfortunately, starting up again.

Raleigh knocks on Newt’s bedroom door. “Hey,” he calls. “What’s up?”

“Nothing!” Newt yells from inside.

“Can I come in?”

“Okay!”

Raleigh opens the door and…huh.

He didn’t think a little kid jumping on a bed would actually make that much noise.

Newt keeps at it, explaining himself to Raleigh as he jumps. “My uncle says it’s a good way to get out excess energy so I don’t break stuff, as long as I’m careful.”

Fair enough.

Raleigh chuckles. “Do you break stuff a lot?”

“Not anymore!” Newt defends.

“We’re going out today, remember?”

Newt finally stops jumping, eyes brightening. “Yeah!” he says, enthused. “Finally, finally, _finally_ ,” he chants happily.

“You should get changed so we can go get breakfast and then head out, okay?”

“Okay!”

Raleigh lets himself out of the bedroom just as Newt hops off of his bed and starts digging around to find yesterday’s clothes, and heads over to Hermann’s room.

He knocks at the door, but there’s no response until he’s at it for a few moments.

“What?” Hermann calls from inside.

“Can I come in?” Raleigh asks, not wanting to take his only cue as to whether everything’s okay from Hermann’s measured voice alone.

“Yes.”

Raleigh opens the door, taking a step inside and then leaning against the wall. Hermann’s already dressed, and seems to simply be pacing across his room in his sock feet.

“What are you doing?” Raleigh asks.

Hermann doesn’t respond, and Raleigh lets it be.

“Just remember we’re going out today,” Raleigh says awkwardly when Hermann doesn’t acknowledge his entrance or general existence.

Hermann nods slightly, smiling faintly, and Raleigh smiles back even though Hermann isn’t looking, and heads back to Mako’s room.

Mako, for her part, is just getting dressed, pulling on jeans and a t-shirt. “Do you think anybody will recognize us?” she asks.

Raleigh winces. He hadn’t thought of that. "What do you think of wearing sunglasses and hats?”

Mako laughs, but then seriously considers it. “Alright.”

“Really?”

“It will be easier than having people stare and wonder about what we’re doing with children.”

“Good point,” Raleigh says easily before checking the time. “We should get some breakfast.”

“It’s still early.”

“Less crowded,” he points out. “I figure things’ll be easier for Newt and Hermann if there are less people staring at them.”

Raleigh and Mako head out of the room and Mako knocks lightly on Hermann’s door while Raleigh takes Newt’s.

“Hey, we’re going out,” Raleigh says, and is then nearly hit in the face with a door that’s swung open with _way_ too much force for a kid that small. “Nice to see you’re still enthusiastic, Newt,” he mutters.

Newt grins and says, “Come on, come on, come on,” pulling at Raleigh’s sweater.

“Okay, buddy, we just have to wait a second. And you know we’re going to be getting breakfast before going out, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, but if we get there faster we’ll have more time to _explore._ ”

Raleigh sighs. “Newt, you’re not going to run off on us when we’re outside of the Shatterdome, right?”

“Nope, promise, swear to God,” Newt says quickly, holding up his left hand.

Raleigh chuckles. “Wrong hand.”

“Well, not on purpose! The point still stands!”

“Okay, just stay close to me while we’re out on the town.”

“ _Fine,_ okay, seriously.”

Mako and Hermann exit Hermann’s room, and Raleigh’s actually pretty impressed at how neat Hermann manages to look even while wearing a sweater that has to be at least one size too large for him and slacks with sneakers.

Hermann rocks forward and back on his heels. “Are we going to go?” he says with what seems like both excitement and trepidation to Raleigh.

“First we have to _eat_ ,” Newt says with some disapproval.

“Yep,” Raleigh says cheerfully, ignoring the tone. Newt would regret not getting something to eat if they just started on their way now. “Let’s go to the mess hall.” That’s when he remembers. “Sh…oot. Shoot, I need to get something real quick.”

Newt makes a loud noise of protest as Raleigh darts into his room and grabs a couple pairs of sunglasses and two baseball caps, but he’s barely done making it when Raleigh’s out.

Raleigh hooks one of the pairs of sunglasses into the neck of his sweater and gives another to Mako, who smiles and does the same. He carefully places the blue baseball cap on her head, and she grins.

When he’s done putting the red baseball cap on his head, trying to adjust it so that it won’t leave marks on his forehead, Newt’s looking at him and Mako curiously.

“So are you guys married or something?” he asks bluntly.

Raleigh chokes on air.

Hermann, who has been looking up at the ceiling for whichever reason for the last half-minute, gives them both a cursory look. “They’re not wearing rings,” he points out.

“Then why do you guys sleep together?”

“Well,” Mako says carefully, and Raleigh sighs in relief because he has no idea how to explain their relationship to a kid. “We are not married, but we are together.”

“Oh, so he’s your boyfriend.”

“No. He is my partner.”

“Okay,” Newt says slowly, and then nods as though everything’s completely clear to him now. “Let’s go to the mess hall.”

Mako smiles. “Good idea.”

Newt practically skips forward, sometimes falling back when he realizes he’s not exactly sure of where they’re going, while Hermann stays in step with Mako, until they’re finally at a table with their food.

Hermann, who flatly refused scrambled eggs, eats his plain yogurt very carefully while Newt enthusiastically shovels his eggs into his mouth, barely chewing. Once he finishes, he grins and announces, “We can go now!”

Hermann pushes away his half-eaten bowl of yogurt, uneasily eyeing the people who are starting to come in now that it’s 0600 hours and a regular breakfast time. “I agree, let’s go now,” he says quietly.

“Are you sure you don’t want anything else?” Raleigh asks, and Hermann shakes his head decisively.

Raleigh lets it be, and they all head to the garage where the “company cars” as Tendo said with a grin yesterday when Raleigh asked about them, are kept.

There’s a car Mako uses almost exclusively, and it’s surprisingly James Bondsian, sleek and black, with tinted windows. Newt likes the shiny leather interior, and Hermann seems pretty fascinated by the way the windows slide open and closed every time he pushes a certain button.

The car ride somehow goes past quietly, with Mako guiding Raleigh to the mall he’d looked up and made sure was still standing yesterday and the kids preoccupied with their own thing, which mostly involves staring out the windows, enthralled.

There aren’t many questions about the amount of construction going on, and Raleigh’s pretty glad that none of the robots Hermann designed to aid with rebuilding are visible even though he knows for a fact that the triplets are out working today, so they must be around, because he’d rather answer those questions later.

When Raleigh finally finds a parking spot—thankfully it’s early enough that the mall is about as deserted as these sorts of places ever get, which means not deserted at all but at least not claustrophobic—in front of the mall he takes a few deep breaths before he decides to actually say anything, because something tells him that this isn’t going to be one of the most relaxing shopping trips he’s ever been on.

He hopes it’ll at least be fun, because something tells him that these kids need that.

He and Mako put on their sunglasses and actually look…well, they look kind of shady, considering how big the sunglasses are, but they don’t look too much like Raleigh Becket and Mako Mori, so it’s good enough, and step out of the car, which Newt takes as an invitation to start practically running out of the parking garage.

“ _Wait,_ ” Raleigh says in his best authoritative voice, which actually manages to stop Newt cold. “What did I say earlier about running off?”

“Right,” Newt grumbles, sulking a little before brightening again. “Come _on,_ then.”

Raleigh rolls his eyes amiably. “Let’s wait for Mako and Hermann.”

“They’re slow.”

“Nah,” Raleigh says playfully. “You’re just fast.”

When they finally get into the mall, Newt looks excited, as expected, and Hermann looks overwhelmed. It’s a huge… _shiny_ place, and it’s not ridiculously full, but there are still a lot of people. Hermann’s starting to play with his hands the same way he did the day that Raleigh met him in this form, twisting his fingers and rubbing the heels of his hands together.

“Take a deep breath,” Mako says kindly, and Hermann listens, muttering a phrase in German to himself for a few seconds before Newt jumps in.

“You speak German!” he crows happily, and Hermann almost jumps. Raleigh starts to move forward, trying to find a store with a kid’s section and a notable lack of a crowd, and the kids follow without a second thought, Newt falling into step with Hermann.

Hermann nods tentatively, looking intently at the ground.

“Cool! Where are you from?”

“Garmisch-Partenkirschen.”

“Isn’t that in Bavaria? I don’t know anyone from Bavaria! A bunch of kids at school make fun of the way you guys talk, but I think it’s neat.”

Hermann doesn’t respond, instead nodding again, not entirely sure how to react to Newt’s attention.

“Where’d you learn such good English?” Newt asks.

“The BBC,” Hermann says softly.

Newt laughs. “That’s awesome! I learned from listening to my Uncle Gunter talking to his American friends.”

Mako and Raleigh look at each other in amazement as Newt falls into silence, probably looking for something else to say that might two or more words out of Hermann.

“Aha!” Raleigh says more triumphantly than strictly necessary when he spots a children’s clothing store that doesn’t seem to be chock full of people, and Newt immediately gets distracted.

“What?” he asks excitedly, running to Raleigh’s side. He then sees the store. “Oh,” he says, his face falling. “Okay.”

“The quicker we get through this, the quicker we can get to the toys,” Raleigh consoles, and Newt immediately brightens again, running forward and then stopping, thankfully seeming to remember what Raleigh told him about staying with their little group.

Raleigh hasn’t ever been to a clothing store specifically for children. When he was little, he would get hand-me-downs from Yancy, who in turn got his clothes from thrift shops, and then he found he had a talent for knitting and that’s where all of his and Yancy’s sweaters, scarves, and gloves came.

It’s sort of expensive, but they’ve got the money, and the place is small and empty enough that Raleigh doesn’t mind Newt immediately bounding off and looking at shirts with colorful patters. There’s more than one with dinosaur prints in the boy’s section, and Raleigh figures Newt’s going to want at least all of them.

It seems like Hermann’s always liked sweaters, because he’s walking around a section that has them in abundance, rubbing a bare wrist against them.

“To check if they’re itchy,” Mako explains when she sees Raleigh giving Hermann a curious look.

Raleigh watches Hermann walk around the sweater display several times before going over to Newt, who is happily wandering around with a few t-shirts swung over his shoulder.

“Hi!” Newt chirps when Raleigh finally ends up next to him. “When can we leave?”

“Is this really that bad?”

“Define ‘that bad’. I just don’t really like clothes shopping. Usually my dad gets my clothes for me.” Raleigh notes with a pang of sadness that something in Newt’s eyes goes a little melancholy when he mentions his father, and Raleigh hopes he never has to divulge the information that Jacob Geiszler died years ago.

“You guys need clothes,” Raleigh points out.

“Yeah,” Newt sighs. “I found dinosaur shirts, though! Look, this one has a velociraptor on it!”

They get pretty into selecting t-shirts with interesting things on them, Newt chattering on and on like he did when he was an adult, and by the time Mako and Hermann wander over to where they are with several different sweaters and button up shirts (clearly some things never change) Raleigh knows way more about dinosaurs than he did before the last twenty minutes.

He’s marveling at how on Earth such a tiny kid can hold so much knowledge when Mako points out that it’s all well and good that they got shirts, but they should probably get a couple of coats and some pants.

Hermann is immediately drawn to a heavy dark blue coat with gold buttons that’s almost a size too large that falls down to his mid-thighs, either completely unaware or completely uncaring that it’s from the girl’s section. Raleigh doesn’t mention it. The thing looks unisex enough.

By the time they’re ready to leave the store, it’s been at least two hours, Raleigh’s way too tired for the time of day, and they’ve still got shopping to do.

The sum he forks over for the clothes makes him wince even though it’s not really his money, but he didn’t really expect anything less, considering they had to buy a completely new wardrobe for two people, and it wouldn’t really make any sense for smaller clothes to be paired with smaller prices even if that’s somehow what he expects.

“Okay,” he says, feeling slightly dizzy, once they’re out of that hellhole (and he’s not really sure when his feelings on the perfectly nice store got to that point). “Okay.”

“Toys,” Mako says, smirking at Raleigh slightly, completely unphased by the mall trip.

“Toys!” Newt repeats happily.

Hermann doesn’t acknowledge the exchange, too busy looking at a ceiling fan Raleigh didn’t notice until he followed his gaze, but he goes along when Mako starts walking, and eventually they’ve stepped inside a small toy store that’s almost empty except for an employee manning the counter and…Tendo.

“Hey, Becket!” Tendo crows. “Mako, Newt, Hermann, what’s up?”

Both Newt and Hermann ignore him, preferring instead to look at the toys that surround them, which Raleigh honestly doesn’t blame them for (even he, grown adult that he is, is distracted, this place is _nice_ ).

“Not much,” Mako says pleasantly. “We just went to get clothes.”

“I can see that,” Tendo says, chuckling and looking at the several bags that Mako and Raleigh are holding.

“What’re you doing here?” Raleigh finally asks.

“Looking for a new stuffed animal for Rose, one of her old ones fell apart in the wash and she’s been pretty much inconsolable for the last three hours, so it was an emergency.”

Raleigh winces. “Sounds like one.”

Tendo lifts up a small rhinoceros stuffed animal. “Found something like it, though, so I’m hoping it’ll tide her over.”

“Good luck.”

Tendo shoots Raleigh a lopsided grin and heads over to pay while Raleigh heads over to where Hermann’s looking at stuffed toys with a mixture of trepidation and longing. To be honest, Raleigh’s still not entirely sure what to do with Hermann, which he knows is exactly what Mako’s going through with Newt, which is why they’re trying to branch out so they don’t end up spending time with just one kid each.

Hermann reaches out to run a finger carefully over the head of a brown stuffed horse, smiling slightly when he does, but just when it looks like he’s finally going to pick it up, he notices Raleigh’s presence at his side and withdraws his hand.

Raleigh frowns. “What’s wrong?”

Hermann hums nervously and mutters something that sounds like “frivolous”, walking over to where Newt and Mako are examining the action figures just as Newt picks up a Yamarashi action figure.

“Wow,” he says approvingly. “Awesome, I’ve never seen something like this before. The structure’s fascinating.” He turns to Mako with some of the best puppy dog eyes Raleigh’s ever seen (and he’s no slouch at them). “Can I get it?”

“Of course,” Mako says. “But,” she adds just as Newt turns back to the other Kaiju toys, “maybe we should look at the other action figures now. I see they have dinosaurs, and dragons. I liked stories about dragons very much as a child. Do you?”

“They’re okay,” Newt says cheerfully, looking at one of the dragons Mako’s handed him. “This one’s cool. I like sci-fi monsters better than fantasy monsters, though, but it’s still interesting to think about how all these made up animals work. I like drawing skeletons for them, and internal organs. The other people at school think it’s really weird, but I think they’re just boring.”

“You’re probably right,” Mako says. “I think it sounds very interesting.”

Newt looks at her like she hung the moon. “You do? I always have lots of ideas.”

“Maybe we can go look at art supplies for your drawings,” Mako suggests, and Newt nods enthusiastically and runs off to where there’s a small grouping of art supplies while Hermann turns an action figure of Cherno Alpha over in his hands.

“What do you think?” Raleigh asks.

“Very interesting. I like how sturdy it looks.”

“Do you want it?”

Raleigh’s almost sure Hermann’s going to nod, but he shakes his head no instead and puts the toy back.

“Hey,” Raleigh says. “Is there something wrong?”

“No. I just…” Hermann frowns. “Toys are a waste of time and now that I don’t have any I should probably just not get more.”

“Wait, why do you think they’re a waste of time?”

“They’re distracting. I should be working and getting ready for my career, but I play instead. It’s not _disciplined._ ”

Raleigh frowns, wondering how exactly to explain to a child that he _should_ get toys. “Hey, you’re smart, but you’re a kid, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to play. If you want something here, go for it. It’s good for you to be a kid, not everything has to be about work.”

Hermann looks at the rows of toys thoughtfully and then tentatively grabs the Cherno Alpha action figure. Raleigh smiles encouragingly. “Did you want the stuffed animal I saw you looking at earlier? The horse?”

Hermann shakes his head almost violently, blushing lightly as Mako and Newt walk over to them with at least an armful of things, a couple of which are clearly meant for Hermann (Raleigh notes a model plane kit and a couple of jigsaw puzzles, which he knows for a fact that Hermann enjoyed as an adult and that Newt pretty much hated and only did because Hermann liked them). “No, it just reminded me of a toy I had when I was little. My father threw it away because he said I was too attached to it.” He says the last part flippantly, but Raleigh can see it still weighs on him.

Newt scoffs. “That’s stupid! Wait,” he says, running over to the stuffed animals display and grabbing the brown horse (he must have seen Hermann admiring it at some point, and clearly Raleigh hasn’t given his observational skills enough credit) and shoving it into Hermann’s arms.

Hermann looks at Newt, surprised, and then looks down at the horse and smiles tentatively. “Alright,” he says, nodding with finality. “Alright.”

After ringing everything up, they’re finally out of the mall, and even though Newt and Hermann, being children and thus having apparently endless resistance to exhaustion, and Mako, who is near impossible to faze, seem in perfectly good shape, Raleigh’s ready to sing hallelujah at the fact that they’re finally heading back to the Shatterdome. Halfway home, he remembers yesterday’s brief conversation about books and that they didn’t buy any, and makes himself promise to remedy that as soon as possible, unless there are lots of books in the Shatterdome hidden somewhere where Raleigh can’t see.

They still, thankfully, don’t spot any robots, and the halls are blissfully empty when they head back to their rooms. Raleigh was never the organized one in his family, but he folds Newt’s clothes and puts them in places that make sense as best as he can while Newt stashes away his new toys.

Of course, when they’re done, Newt asks, “Can we explore the rest of the Shatterdome now?”

“I’m…not sure,” Raleigh says.

“You said I could!” Newt whines, looking put out enough that Raleigh feels bad (and he swears he’s not usually such a pushover) and relents.

“Yeah, sure, we can do some exploring. But only parts where you guys are allowed, okay, you still have to stay with me and Mako.”

“Okay, okay, okay, promise.”

“Come on; let’s go ask Mako and Hermann if they want to come.”

“Yes!” Newt cheers, flying out the door and rapping on Hermann’s door. “We’re going exploring!”

Mako opens the door, looking down at Newt with vague amusement. “Are we?”

“Yeah, right now, come on Hermann!”

Hermann appears half hiding behind Mako and nods his assent to exploring, and they head out.

The Shatterdome honestly isn’t that interesting, especially when they’re specifically going through routes civilians could easily take without having to sign confidentiality forms, but Newt and Hermann, just like last night, seem rather fascinated.

Hermann seems to like the texture of the walls—he keeps running his hands over them—and Newt takes it upon himself to begin a lecture on arachnids after spotting several spiders running around.

And then Newt gets bored and runs off, which, honestly, Raleigh doesn’t blame him for. He’s actually pretty glad that the arachnid lecture’s come to an abrupt end; Raleigh hates spiders.

“Wait!” both Raleigh and Mako yell after Newt, allowing too much panic into their voices, but that’s only because they know which way Newt’s headed.

They run after him, Hermann following at a more sedate pace, but it’s too late by the time they catch up to him, and then they’re all standing in front of the garage, which holds the two Jaegers that can still be repaired (Striker was beyond that, as was, Raleigh thinks with a pang, Danger).

Herc, Pentecost, and Chuck are talking to the Wei triplets and the Kaidanovskys, and they all turn in intimidating tandem when Newt makes a loud exclamation of awe to look at what exactly is going on.

Raleigh and Mako exchange an uneasy look.

In retrospect, they should have expected a moment like this.


	4. Logistics

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gah, I'm sorry about the short chapter full of handwaving, but it had to be done! I hope you still enjoy!

Newt gasps, then, a sharp intake of air, and it must be pretty impressive to him, the huge outlines of the currently-being-fixed-up Cherno Alpha and Crimson Typhoon and the smaller outlines of what Raleigh clumsily calls the rebuilder robots.  
  
Newt laughs delightedly.

Stacker and Herc, for their part...do not look pleased, the Kaidanovskys look unfazed (big surprise there), Chuck looks unimpressed (biggest surprise), Jin looks vaguely terrified, like he's never seen small children in his life and suspects they’re poisonous, Cheung looks legitimately delighted, and Hu just seems amused.  
  
Newt tries to run ahead, but Raleigh grabs his sleeve and he stops short, looking betrayed.  
  
Hermann is still standing next to Mako, hands clapped over his ears against the noise of the garage, but other than that he looks positively serene, looking at the robots with wonder, sharp eyes taking in everything possible.  
  
"What's this?" Pentecost asks wearily as Raleigh and Mako make their ways toward the group of current and former pilots.

Raleigh would say _what does it look like?_ if he were a sullen teenager uninterested in keeping his life. Instead, he says, “I’m sorry, sir, Newt got away from us.”

“Of course he did,” Chuck mutters, and Raleigh shoots him a dirty look.

Pentecost nods and says, “We were going to have to tell them about this at some point.”

“Tell us about what? The robots? Are there other things you’re not telling us about that aren’t robot related? I can’t believe you guys have giant robots; did you build them for the war? I bet you bought them for the war. The Kaiju must have been really strong; did they have giant robots too? What kind of _tech_ is this—?”

“Newt, calm down,” Raleigh says as firmly as possible as Newt babbles on, his excitement taking on a frantic edge.

Newt stops, taking a deep breath. “Right,” he agrees, “Right, I’ll do that,” but he can’t help but whisper _giant robots_ with delight.

Cheung looks absolutely charmed. “You really are Newt.”

Newt gives him a slightly confused look. “Oh, yeah, I guess. I mean, yeah. I’m _totally_ Newt. Unless you’re talking about another Newt, in which case I’m not him, but I’m this Newt. What’s your name?” He notes Cheung, Jin, and Hu’s appearance and looks dazzled, seeming to entirely forget his previous question. “Wow, _triplets._ ” He squints at them, and then lets out a sound of glee. “Identical triplets? That’s one in every five hundred _thousand_ pregnancies! That’s so cool!”

“Thank you,” Cheung replies graciously, chuckling. “I do not think I have ever met anybody so impressed with us for being born.”

“How about,” Pentecost says, “We continue doing our introductions outside of the garage. It’s not very conducive to conversation, is it?” He directs the last part towards Newt, who is starting to look quietly mutinous. Hermann, who seems to have blocked all outside stimuli that doesn’t have to do with the Jaegers, doesn’t respond.

“Fine,” Newt mutters, now grabbing onto Raleigh’s sweater sleeve and pulling hard. Raleigh stays in place, and Newt amuses himself by trying to move him along until Raleigh finally acquiesces and starts moving out of the garage, followed by the others, including, after Mako manages to get him moving, a reluctant Hermann.

Pentecost eventually manages to get a lead on Newt and herd them all into his office, which makes it _really_ cramped, but Raleigh obviously doesn’t mention it. Hermann, seemingly noticing the triplets for the first time, asks, “Were you the ones that drove the robot with three arms?”

Jin looks at him thoughtfully. “Yes, how did you know?”

Hermann scoffs. “It’s not _difficult_ to realize. The robots have cockpits, at least I think that that’s what I saw being worked on, which means somebody must be driving them, and that was the only one with three arms. The other very big one only had two arms, but I think the cockpit had two parts, which means two people driving, for whichever reason. So one person controls one arm, and one person controls the other, somehow. If the robot has three arms, then it’s likely that it has three people driving it. And you’re triplets, so it makes sense that you’d go to school together, assuming that you went to some sort of school to learn how to drive the robot, and get along well enough to drive it together.”

“Impressive,” Jin says, and Hermann shakes his head at the ground and shrugs.

“How _do_ they work?” he asks suddenly.

Jin looks vaguely confused, but then nods. “The…robots.”

“Of course.”

Jin looks over at Pentecost for permission, and Pentecost grants it with a slight inclination of his head.

“Well,” Jin starts slowly. “There are usually two pilots. We were the only three person team. The technology of these robots, they connect to the brain. For one pilot, this is too much, it makes them have a neural overload. But with more than one pilot, their brains work together, and one pilot controls the right side, and the other the left side. We did something a little different, but it was the same idea. The way that the brains connect, it is called a Drift. When they are connected, to each other and to the…robot, they are in a Neural Handshake.”

“Fascinating,” Hermann breathes, eyes alight with interest.

Newt, who had also been listening with something approaching rapture, especially when it came to the part about brains connecting, says, in a similar voice, “Incredible.” He looks over everyone in the room. “This war must’ve been really big.”

“It was,” Pentecost says grimly. “We’ll have to tell you more about that later, alright?”

Newt doesn’t look thrilled at the idea of having to wait, and Raleigh honestly can’t tell if Hermann’s even paying attention—he’s picked up a large glass paperweight Pentecost has on his desk and is rolling it around in his hands and…Raleigh’s not sure. Maybe just watching the way it catches the light. He looks absorbed, though. However, the kids—at least Newt—seems to have realized Pentecost’s word is law, and Newt doesn’t say anything.

Instead, he starts talking to Cheung, who looks honestly happy to be talked to, asking innocuous questions like _where are you from?_

Raleigh watches, barely even noticing the slight smile that crawls over his face unbidden. It’s only been two days, and he’s got to say that he misses grown-up Newt and Hermann, but he’s also got to say that he’s going to miss little Newt and Hermann too once the scientists downstairs find some way to reverse the effects of whatever experiment Newt and Hermann were up to.

“Raleigh, Mako, if you’d come with me,” Pentecost says quietly, startling Raleigh. Mako doesn’t seem startled at all.

They step out of the room.

Newt looks at them with concern.

“It’s fine, we’ll be back soon,” Raleigh promises, and Newt seems pacified, going back to his enthusiastic conversation with Cheung.

“They seem to have gotten attached to the both of you,” Pentecost says with no preamble.

Raleigh and Mako don’t ask who—it’s obvious. Raleigh shrugs. It’s true.

“I’ve been talking to Alison and the scientists downstairs,” Pentecost says in a low voice, and Raleigh’s pretty sure he knows where this is going but he’s not going to interrupt. “Alison says that any tests she’s taken read as absolutely normal in that there is no sign of accelerated growth. We tried to look into what the experiment that caused this was, but there’s been no luck. Newt’s tapes are fried, as are the security cameras, and none of their papers show any sign of which experiment either of them might have been working on to cause something like this. As far as medicine and science can tell, they’re children.”

“So they’ll have to grow up again,” Mako says quietly. She doesn’t seem as unflappable as usual.

“Yes, that seems to be what’s going to happen. We’re going to have to start making long-term plans for them.”

“How are we going to do this?” Mako asks, not seeming panicked, just…musing. “What kind of childhood are we capable of giving them?”

“Hopefully a good one,” Pentecost says firmly.

Raleigh nods. “We just need to figure out how to do this without giving too much of their adult lives away, and introduce them to the modern world bit by bit. We’ve already done that with the robots, and we’ve already told them about the war. Kind of.”

 _But what about…?_ His brain starts up a million questions with that beginning.

Shit, this isn’t going to be easy. Well, it already wasn’t easy, and now that Raleigh knows that Newt and Hermann are sticking around in this form for, well, ever, it seems like there’s no right way to go about any of this. Raleigh had already been quietly preparing himself for this news, mostly because he’s just got a habit of immediately assuming that whatever’s more difficult is going to end up being the way things go, but even so it’s still overwhelming.

Raleigh finally asks, “Why did you bring us out here?”

Pentecost sighs heavily. “I was wondering,” he begins ponderously. “If you two would act as Newt and Hermann’s legal guardians.”

Mako says, in a voice slightly squeakier than her usual, _“What?”_

Raleigh just says, “Yes.”

They look at each other in surprise, not used to disagreeing, even if they haven’t really disagreed.

“Mako, you knew both of them well as adults,” Pentecost starts. “I’m sure that will come in handy, even if they aren’t yet adults. And it’s clear that Raleigh is quite willing to do this. Naturally, this is not an order. If you don’t want to—”

“No,” Mako says, uncharacteristically interrupting Pentecost. “No, I want to do this. I will. I owe at least this much to them.”

Raleigh isn’t sure what to feel, so all he does is show a weird outward calm and ask questions, because there’s not much else he can think of doing. “How are we going to get legally recognized here?”

“I’ll take care of that,” Pentecost assures him.

Raleigh doesn’t want to ask. “But…now that this is permanent, don’t we _have_ to tell their families?”

Mako answers before Pentecost can. “It’s very complicated, Raleigh. There has never been a recorded situation like this one before, and besides, as I said earlier, Newt’s mother has never been in the picture. He spoke to her occasionally, but he always told me that he considered her a distant friend of the family. Those who raised him are dead. Hermann is estranged from all of his surviving family, and they have children of their own. Perhaps it is ethically dubious to not inform them of what has happened, but as they have not seen each other in years, it is genuinely possible that they will not notice what has happened until years have passed.”

Raleigh lets out a slow breath. “What are we going to tell the public? Newt and Hermann are gonna end up in the history books, it’ll get noticed when they just…disappear.”

“The public can make their own stories,” Pentecost says pointedly. “It wouldn’t be impossible for two famous scientists to end up recluses, especially after drifting with a Kaiju.”

It…makes sense, so Raleigh just lets that be. The whole thing is making him feel practically nauseous with nerves, something that hasn’t happened since he was a kid, but he takes a deep breath and tells himself he’s going to do this right if he’s going to do this at all.

When he was younger, he assumed he’d have kids, that he’d be a great dad and Yancy would be a great uncle and he’d be an uncle too because Yancy would also have kids, and he’d have the kind of happiness in his family life that the Becket’s could never quite achieve. Then, after Yancy died and Raleigh was too…off to so much as take care of a goldfish, he figured the world was going to shit anyway, so what was the point of bringing a human being into all of it?

And even once the war ended and he started to think of a future, he still didn’t quite believe he’d ever be a father.

Until, obviously, now. Now he can actually kind of see a future with an unconventional family but a _family_ nonetheless, and it makes his chest squeeze suddenly.

It’s kind of a lot to take in, but Raleigh squares his shoulders and takes a deep breath and smiles at Mako quickly. She smiles back, and they head back into the office.

“It’s getting late,” Pentecost announces. “You four,” he nods at Raleigh, Mako and the kids, “should eat something if you haven’t.”

Hermann carefully sets the paperweight down on the desk again and says, “I’m not hungry.”

“Well,” Raleigh says carefully, “how about we still eat something, okay? It’s better to eat even when you’re not hungry.”

“There’ll be people there,” Hermann mutters.

“Only a few,” Mako promises. “At this time of night there aren’t many. It’s not loud at all. It’ll be like yesterday.”

Hermann nods briefly, and walks to the cafeteria with Newt, seeming happy enough to listen to him go on about the music scene in Berlin (which Raleigh guesses must have something to do with his dad and uncle’s jobs, he vaguely remembers that they had musical jobs), until they’re at the same table they sat at yesterday, surrounded by just about nobody, as predicted, with food in front of them.

Hermann very carefully loops his noodles around a fork as Newt digs in enthusiastically.

And then Mako says, “We believe you may be here longer than expected,” and Raleigh goggles at her, because this was not in the plan for tonight. There _was_ no plan for tonight, other than maybe try and get the kids to go to bed.

Hermann stops moving his fork, and Newt looks up at Mako with panic in his eyes.

“What?” he asks in a small voice. “You mean…they’re…we’re not going to…we’re staying here?”

Mako responds, “Yes, unless something unprecedented happens, we believe so.”

“But…who’s going to…” Newt trails off, frustrated, trying to find words.

“We’re going to take care of you. Everyone you’ve met here, but especially Mako and I. We’re going to act as your legal guardians,” Raleigh cuts in just when he’s pretty sure Mako’s going to start floundering.

Hermann doesn’t say anything, just starts eating again (God, Raleigh wishes he knew what goes on in his head), and after a moment of staring at Hermann’s apparent unflappability, Newt follows suit, tentatively.

That night, before the kids go into their own rooms, Newt tugs on the sleeve of Raleigh’s sweater.

“Yeah?” Raleigh asks, looking down.

Newt just looks at him for a while, and then nods thoughtfully. “I like you,” he informs Raleigh.

Raleigh blinks, and then smiles. “I like you too.”

Newt smiles at him and then runs into his room, slamming the door behind him.

Mako, coming from talking about something with Hermann, walks over to Raleigh, leans against the door of his room, and sighs. “Do you think things are going to be okay?”

“Yeah,” Raleigh says, sounding more chipper than he feels, but in his defense, he’s really tired. “I think they will be.”


	5. Steady

Raleigh dreams about Yancy.

It’s not uncommon, after the Drift, to dream like Raleigh does—in memories, some of them not even his.

When he dreams about Yancy, he usually dreams of the day his brother died and everything changed, but this time it’s not like that.

This time they’re both kids and Raleigh is laughing and Yancy is saying something that Raleigh can’t quite hear, and that’s when he wakes up.

He’s not breathing too hard or too fast, and he honestly doesn’t know what the point of that dream was except to make his chest start aching horribly because…he’s got kids, now, sort of, and Yancy’s never going to meet them and for the first time since all of this started that thought worms its way into Raleigh’s heart and _breaks_ it.

Raleigh shuts his eyes tightly until the grief mostly dissipates, rolling over and checking the time. 0400 hours. Raleigh sighs.

Not really a good time to be waking up, but it’s not like he’ll be getting back to sleep after having a dream about Yancy, even if it was essentially a good one.

He figures the mess hall will be open, though, for the people on late shifts. Breakfast probably won’t be ready yet, but maybe Raleigh can get some coffee even though he’s not even that tired anymore. He learned how to survive on a lot less sleep than even others in the PPDC during his years on the wall.

He gets out of bed, careful not to disturb Mako, changes into some civilian clothes, and steps out into the hallway.

He’s about to head to the cafeteria when Newt opens the door to his room and steps out, dressed in jeans and a dinosaur t-shirt.

“Hey,” Raleigh says quietly, concerned, even more so when Newt jumps and looks at him. His hair is a mess and it looks like he’s been crying.

“Hi,” Newt answers, looking down at the concrete Shatterdome floor with fascination, but Raleigh’s pretty sure it isn’t genuine.

“What’s up? Is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” Newt says. “I’m okay. I’m fine, I’m always fine.” He sounds like he’s trying to convince himself, and then deflates more than he already had. “I had a bad dream,” he whispers; as though that’s something Raleigh’s going to get mad at him for.

“So did I,” Raleigh says, even though it’s not totally true. It’s worth it, for the way Newt looks up at him, surprised, and seems to brighten. “Do you have bad dreams a lot?” Raleigh decides to ask.

Newt shrugs, and it looks like he’s trying his best to seem cheerful. “Yeah, but they’re no big deal.”

“What are they about?”

“I don’t remember,” Newt says, clearly lying, but Raleigh doesn’t push. “What are yours about?”

“The war.”

Newt nods vaguely and then walks to Raleigh’s side. Raleigh’s slightly disturbed by how subdued he seems, but he manages a smile. “Well, if we’re both already awake, how about we see if there’s anything to eat around here?”

“Okay,” Newt says, seeming to brighten, but he’s still quiet when they head down to the mess hall.

“Hey! What’re you two doing up at this time?” Tendo calls out the second they step into the mess hall.

“Couldn’t sleep,” Raleigh says vaguely, and Tendo looks sympathetic.

“Yeah, me neither.”

Newt and Raleigh head over to the table Tendo’s sitting at, and Tendo, for his part, wanders off for a while before returning with a couple of bagels and a cup of coffee he oushes at Raleigh, who takes it gratefully.

“Can I have coffee?” Newt asks excitedly.

Raleigh and Tendo both shoot him a disbelieving look. “You’re eight,” Tendo points out. “So no.”

Newt pouts, and Raleigh chuckles. “Do you even like the taste?” He remembers that when he was younger he used to drink coffee just because Yancy did, so it was always around, and hating the taste. He only started liking it while he was working on the Wall.

Newt scowls, and Raleigh smirks, knowing he’s won. “It just makes me sleepy anyway,” Newt mutters.

“Well, I think I’m going to actually go to sleep,” Tendo says through a yawn. “See how that goes. You two have fun.” And then he’s off, leaving Newt and Raleigh chewing on their bagels, exhausted.

It takes a while for Raleigh to ask, but eventually he does. “What do you dream about?”

Newt looks uncomfortable, staring down at the table. “I…” he starts, but then he stops and is quiet for at least a minute. “Monsters,” he finally says decisively.

Raleigh frowns and asks, as gently as possible, “I thought you liked monsters?”

“I like made-up monsters. Not the ones that live in my head,” Newt answers gravely, looking up.

Raleigh’s struck by the genuine fear and misery in his eyes. It makes his heart twist painfully in his chest, and Raleigh, not sure of how to answer that, reaches out to ruffle Newt’s hair.

Newt giggles weakly and goes back to eating his bagel, still looking far too solemn.

Raleigh swallows his worry—it’s not going to help right at this moment—and works on finishing his own food.

Newt’s already done by the time Raleigh drinks the last of his coffee, fidgeting and looking like he wants to bolt, but thankfully not actually running off. He brightens when Raleigh stands up, and grabs onto Raleigh’s hand to pull him along the halls.

Raleigh stops cold, and Newt stumbles, turning and scowling at him. “What?”

“You don’t even know where you’re going, do you?” Raleigh asks, and Newt looks indignant for a second before realizing he really _doesn’t_ know where he’s going and deflating slightly.

“Come on,” Raleigh says, chuckling, pulling Newt along so that they’re finally going the right way.

When they stop in front of Newt’s room, Newt starts to look anxious.

“Something wrong?” Raleigh asks, and Newt gets a conflicted look on his face like he wants to say something but isn’t sure Raleigh would like it. Raleigh nudges Newt a bit. “Hey, you can tell me whatever you want,” he says gently.

“Don’t leave me alone,” Newt blurts out.

It makes sense that Newt wouldn’t want to be alone after what was probably a pretty disturbing nightmare, and Raleigh nods, smiling. “Okay, come to my room with me. Bring a couple of your toys, and you can play while I…work.”

Raleigh doesn’t actually plan to work—there’s not much work for him outside of a robot other than taking care of Newt and Hermann, since he and Mako are both on leave—but he’s got a scarf that he really wants to finish.

Newt brightens and runs into his room, emerging with a few of his toys and running right into Raleigh’s room just as the door is opened.

He sprawls out on the ground and his dinosaur and Kaiju figurines immediately start some kind of epic battle for supremacy. Raleigh’s not entirely sure, though—Newt plays surprisingly quietly.

Raleigh, for his part, takes out his knitting needles and the nice ruffled scarf he’s working on to give to Mako, and as he starts the relaxing process, he thinks it would be a good idea to make a few sweaters for the kids and starts musing over patterns, not really caring that Newt’s staring rather blatantly at his “work”.

“Where’d you learn how to knit?” Newt asks, finally, after a few minutes of silence.

“When I was a kid,” Raleigh replies. “My mom taught me. I got into it pretty quick.”

“Oh,” Newt replies, and then he gets to his feet as there’s a knock on the door, opening it to reveal Hermann, who’s changed into clothes for the day already.

Raleigh checks the clock. Time’s passed faster than he thought—it’s already 0600 hours.

“Hi!” Newt says brightly.

Hermann nods stiffly in response. “I heard noises,” he explains.

“Sorry if we were loud,” Raleigh says, frowning, because he knows they weren’t. Maybe Hermann just has sensitive ears.

Hermann shrugs. “Not really.”

“Want to bring in some toys?” Raleigh suggests, and Hermann nods shyly, walking out of the room and returning to sit on the ground near Newt with a jigsaw puzzle, which he starts very carefully putting together, rocking back and forth slightly and looking so peaceful even Newt doesn’t bother him, preferring to mutter to himself as he plays.

Eventually Newt launches a dinosaur action figure across the room, and while he’s crawling after it, he bumps into one of the old shoeboxes Raleigh has strewn around the room.

“What’s this?” he asks, picking at the rubber band Raleigh’s put around the box to hold it closed.

“They’re pictures,” Raleigh explains.

“What kind of pictures?”

“All kinds of pictures. I used to take lots of photographs.”

“Do you not anymore?”

“I just started again.”

“Can I see?”

Raleigh looks over at the box and shrugs. “Sure, if you want.”

Newt immediately starts sifting through the photographs, which seem to have been mostly taken in the Anchorage Shatterdome back in the heyday of the Jaeger program.

Newt’s silent for almost half an hour, until he asks, “Who’s that?” holding up a photo of Yancy.

Raleigh doesn’t stiffen with sudden panic like he used to when asked about his brother, back when just his name could drive him to tears. He just takes the photo gently and looks at his brother’s smiling face. “That’s my brother Yancy,” he finally says. “He was my Drift partner before Mako. He died in the war.”

“Oh,” Newt says quietly. “Sorry.”

Raleigh sighs heavily, ruffling Newt’s hair. “Yeah, me too,” he sighs, but he softens the words with a smile. “We were really close. I miss him.”

“I miss my older brother too,” Hermann suddenly says, and he’d been so quiet that Raleigh’d almost forgotten he was even here.

He’d been so quiet, period, that Raleigh’d almost forgotten Hermann has a family too, a family that’s still mostly alive, barring his mother, and, according to Mako, all out of reach.

(“Why?” Raleigh had asked.

“I don’t know the whole story,” she’d admitted, “but Hermann hasn’t spoken to any of them for years. None of them supported his decision to continue in the Jaeger program when his father left.”)

“What’s his name?” Raleigh asks, and he wonders if he should even be using present tense, if Hermann really isn’t ever going to see his older—now much older—brother again, and the guy should be considered good as dead.

“Dietrich,” Hermann says, grabbing his stuffed horse, which he’d brought along with the jigsaw puzzle, and rolling it over in his hands, petting it. “He’s…” it looks like he’s searching for the right word and the English language isn’t letting him find it, so he settles on, “nice.”

Raleigh smiles a little, not sure how to respond to any of this now that they’ve gotten into the dangerous area of family. He still doesn’t know if they’re doing the right thing, taking custody of these kids without even contacting their surviving family, but if Mako and Pentecost are right, it would just be frustrating for everybody involved, and this is too delicate to let slip to the press, which anybody outside of the PPDC could do.

So he and Mako, over the next two weeks, manage to gain custody—Raleigh’s not entirely sure how it happens, Pentecost procures some forms and Raleigh and Mako sign them, and nothing changes, really, except Newt and Hermann’s last names are now officially Becket-Mori.

Hermann likes going to the garage, even though he can’t stay long—he really does have sensitive ears, and the noise starts to upset him after a while—until Pentecost manages to procure noise-canceling headphones, which Hermann takes to with glee.

So most days after school—which is online and way too advanced for any child, but apparently not quite advanced enough for Newt and Hermann, who burn through their courses—Raleigh can find Hermann holed away in some place in the garage, watching repairs being made on the Jaegers with a totally intent look on his face. Mako generally manages to coax Hermann away after a couple of hours to go eat something and then play with Newt.

They get along, actually, something that seems just as miraculous as Hermann and Newt getting along as adults. They do tend to bicker, but not nearly as much as they did when they were grown-ups.

(“We’re friends, right?” Raleigh overhears Newt anxiously ask Hermann one night, in the middle of a slightly heated argument.

Hermann responds, “I’ve never had a friend before.”

“Yeah, me neither, but we’re _friends,_ right?”

“I…suppose.”

“Cool!” Newt says with giddy excitement.)

And things go pretty smoothly for those two weeks, with people in the Shatterdome pitching in so that they stay going smoothly. Newt gets along with just about everyone, because he’s all over the place, constantly getting out of Raleigh or Mako’s grip no matter how many times they patiently explain that he _has to stay with them, please_.

The Wei Tang triplets, Cheung and Hu in particular, are very fond of him, and Hermann as well, though Hermann is particularly attached to Jin, who is, in turn, particularly attached to Hermann. Raleigh often leaves the Wei Tang’s to babysit when he and Mako want to be alone, and usually comes back to Hermann and Jin talking quietly while Newt, Cheung, and Hu run around playing some complicated game of tag or hide and seek. Anything, really, to keep Newt, whose mind works in leaps and bounds, entertained.

Pentecost and Herc tend to take some time out of their day to have dinner with Mako, Raleigh, Hermann, and Newt. Hermann and Pentecost talk about planes while Mako and Raleigh try to make it not seem obvious how adorable it is to them, the amount that Hermann clearly worships Pentecost. This generally coincides with Newt regaling Chuck about his day, and Chuck shaking his head at how on Earth “the kid” can have so much energy when he’s already been running around all day, and trying to keep up with Newt’s stories, which tend to abruptly switch from one to another.

Newt likes the Kaidanovsky’s, is always asking Aleksis to ride on his shoulders—Aleksis always consents—but Hermann continues to be wary of them, something Raleigh knows is still hard on the Kaidanovsky’s.

Hermann doesn’t explain why the Kaidanovsky’s intimidate him so much, but Raleigh can tell that it’s something in their imposing size—they just don’t look like people who would get along well with mathematicians to Hermann. Or, well, the children of mathematicians.

“Hermann’s never trusted easily,” Mako explained. “I didn’t know it started so early.”

Raleigh worries about Hermann sometimes, about how quiet he is and about how he isolates himself. Mako says that that’s how he is, and that he’s friends with Newt and Jin and gets along with Mako and Raleigh both should be quite enough, and it is, it really is. Raleigh was just around a lot of enthusiasm when he was a kid, enthusiasm that Hermann—who always seems to want to act like a little adult—doesn’t seem to have.

Tonight, he wakes up in the middle of the night and carefully gets out of bed without waking Mako—he’s perfected that art—and, since he’s already awake (Yancy’s voice, _Raleigh listen to me,_ ringing in his ears) goes to check on the kids.

Newt’s actually sleeping peacefully, but then Raleigh notices that Hermann’s door is slightly ajar, and when he opens the door a bit further.

 _Hermann’s not there_.

Raleigh decides not to panic completely, to take deep breaths and think about where he could be and what he could be doing. Hermann’s coat is gone from its usual place of honor in his closet (he has a pretty heavy attachment to that coat), and so Raleigh decides not to freak Mako out by waking her up and goes to look for Hermann himself.

He spends an hour looking, getting more and more panicky until he sees a door that leads to the stairs open near Hermann’s room, and, even though it’s cold outside, hopes against hope that Hermann’s gone to look at the stars or something. He used to do that as an adult.

Raleigh reaches the roof, and ends up stock still in the space between inside and outside, because of what he’s seeing.

It’s Sasha and Hermann standing next to each other, and Hermann is pointing out a constellation to Sasha and basically lecturing about it as she asks well thought out questions.

Then Hermann falls silent.

“Is something wrong?” Sasha asks, words curling out of her mouth like smoke.

“I miss where I come from sometimes. I miss the past.”

“I understand that. I miss many things from the past too. My experiences could never be like yours, but…”

“Newt misses the past too. He misses his father and his uncle. He told me.”

“I know. He told me that too. But he also says that he likes it here. That he even thinks he will get used to it someday. Will you?”

Hermann is quiet a very long time, staring at a plane making its way across the sky, at its blinking lights. “Yes. I believe I will.”

Raleigh finally makes himself known. "Hey, Hermann. Sasha. It's cold out here. What do you think about going back inside, buddy?" He reaches out to Hermann, and Hermann reaches back but stays stationary.

Raleigh frowns and walks over to Hermann, grabbing onto his hand.

"Look at the stars with us," Hermann insists.

Raleigh smiles, and he does.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is it, the end of the story! I wanted to write a fic covering the beginning of the journey Mako, Raleigh, Newt, and Hermann are going to have to take now that Newt and Hermann are young again, and I hope you guys liked it! Thank you for your kudos and comments, and sorry for taking such a long time posting this last chapter. :)


End file.
